From 6-9 November 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Internet governance experts, civil society, government officials, international development actors, academics, private sector representatives and other inquiring global citizens gathered together for the seventh meeting of the Internet Governance Forum. The theme of the forum was ‘Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development’.

More than 1600 delegates gathered representing 128 different countries spent the week together in beautiful Baku. There was a particularly strong presence from civil society, who were the highest represented stakeholder group at the forum. Participation was regionally diverse and the participation of women at the forum increased significantly from previous years. Youth delegate representation and activity was also sited to be a notable achievement of this year’s IGF.

As per now standard IGF practice, the entire meeting was web-cast and participation was offered remotely, more than doubling the active participation in both the main sessions and workshop rooms throughout the week. Real time transcription was also available to enhance the participatory experience for those present in Baku and around the world.

Remote participation has become a major strength of the IGF process as this feature enables unprecedented access to and interaction with experts for any individual with an Internet connection around the globe. It also significantly increases the knowledge sharing, information dissemination, partnership building and capacity building that makes the IGF meeting’s so unique. 49 expert remote participants and panelists participated via video and audio during the week. 52 different remote ‘hubs’ allowed IGF enthusiasts to gather together to follow the proceedings in Baku.

This year’s meeting also saw social media activity spike significantly, as participation on social networking platforms allowed the discussions to begin prior to the start of the meeting, continue between meeting rooms and during breaks throughout the week and now extend after delegates leave Baku to return home. There were thousands of ‘tweets’ about the forum each day, which reached millions of others on the social information-sharing network.

This summary primarily encapsulates the proceedings of the five main sessions, which were organized through a series of open, multi-stakeholder consultations held throughout the past year. Each main session incorporated the views and exchange of ideas that took place during the many simultaneously held workshops throughout the week and were translated into seven different languages.

In fact, the 7th IGF held a record number of workshops, best practise forums, dynamic coalition meetings and open forum. These sessions allow participants to delve into both complicated and oftentimes controversial issues in an open and intimate manner. Topics at these workshops and other meetings ranged from issues related to cyber-security and child protection online, the rise of social networks, the use of ‘big data’, and various aspects of human rights as they related to the Internet, among many others.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony formally handed over to the host country the seventh meeting of the Internet Governance Forum and warmly welcomed the delegates to Baku, Azerbaijan.

In his opening address, Mr. Wu Hongbo, the United Nations Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, explained that while it was his first meeting of the IGF, he was greatly impressed with the dynamic discussion space that the forum provided and noted the significant progress the IGF had made since its first meeting in 2006. Mr. Wu expressed his sincere gratitude to the Government of Azerbaijan for their warm welcome and generous hospitality. The Under Secretary General also highlighted the importance of the IGF multi-stakeholder process and emphasized the importance of open, inclusive and transparent dialogue, which brought all stakeholders together on an equal footing and the remarkable capacity‑building opportunities the forum provides. Mr. Wu also noted the growing popularity and prominence of the National and Regional IGFs, including the recently launched Arab and African IGFs.

Mr. Wu invited then invited Mr. Ali Abbasov, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies to deliver the welcoming message of His Excellency President Aliyev. The President’s message reminded the delegates that the Internet was not only a space for the exchange of information but also an environment which created new opportunities for public governance and advances in education, health, business, banking and other fields vital for positive human, social and economic growth. Azerbaijan is committed to protecting the civil liberties of its citizens both offline and online, and was working to increase its broadband connectivity throughout the country and to ensure it’s Internet remained and open and secure space for all citizens.

Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union, emphasized the importance of the IGF and strengthened his support and commitment to the Forum and its multi-stakeholder nature. Dr. Toure announced the date for next years WSIS forum and other upcoming ITU events, and emphasized the ITUs role in growing the Internet, increasing its access, and assuring online safety and security. He assured participants that ITU did not want to control the Internet, but rather wanted to re-affirm its commitment to ensuring its sustainability using the multi-stakeholder model.

Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Abid Sharifov, was next to address the audience. He welcomed again the delegates to Baku and highlighted the government’s commitment to the promotion of ICT, and explained that appropriate governance of this process was key. 65% of the country is already using the Internet and new technologies such as 4G are being used in many areas. The country is expanding the Internet and has implemented a program which is guaranteeing the people access and unregulated use of the Internet. The government is also implementing and continually updating an electronic government platform improving public service delivery. Azerbaijan is also helping to lead the promotion of the Eurasian information superhighway. ICTs, he said, are also fully integrated into the decade long plan for growth in economic development.

Opening session

The 7th meeting of the IGF in Baku appropriately set the stage for the exciting week that was to come. A distinguished expert group of speakers addressed the remote and physically present delegates. It was stressed throughout the session that we are living today in a rapidly changing world, as information and communication technologies continue to transform our day to day lives that bring our society many opportunities as well as challenges. The annual IGF and increasing numbers of National and Regional IGFs are able to best harness together all potential opportunities that the Internet presents us and to address the many challenges that the Internet also creates for all stakeholders in the IGF community.

A collective affirmation of the necessity of the multi-stakeholder model in handling Internet governance issues was continually stressed throughout the session. The IGF process, it was said, is meeting and even surpassing its mandate to both reinforce and lift the ongoing enhanced cooperation efforts of the multi-stakeholder Internet governance community. Here at the IGF, the governments are eager to listen to their civil society and business communities. Capacity and partnership building take place in the main session hall, at intimate workshops, in online chat rooms and in the long corridors at the Baku expo center.

A universal call was made by the speakers to strengthen efforts to ensure both freedom of expression and the protection of basic human rights in the online world. As more and more people join this online environment each day, particularly in the developing world, policy makers and law enforcement agencies must ensure that they enjoy the same freedoms online that they do offline. Of course this will be a tremendous challenge as these rights certainly differ culturally at local, regional and national levels. The Internet has become ‘life-blood’ for many and its ‘organic’ nature means that new and innovative policies must be crafted to address the new and emerging issues that will certainly continue to arise.

Delegates and remote participants were reminded that soon the center of the Internet would reside in the developing world. As critical infrastructures are expanded and mobile phones become increasingly more available this will soon be our new reality. Internet needs to compliment existing development activities in delivering basic education, health, and public service delivery.

It should also bring new entrepreneurial opportunities and innovative business solutions that can accelerate human, social and economic development. As this transformation is already well on its way, a call was made to ensure that new local content, in local languages that respected local culture and heritage, had both the capacity and resources to be produced and maintained.

Though the session was overwhelmingly optimistic there was an underlying message delivered regarding the supreme importance of securing a safe and secure Internet for young people and the generations to come. Appropriate regulations must be put in place to assure this, while still assuring the basic principals of freedom of expression and human rights. New cyber-security challenges were also discussed and it was agreed that this dangerous threat must be addressed both urgently and collectively.

As the session concluded participants were set to embark on the rest of their weeks; to learn, share experiences, build new partnerships and inform policy making in the exciting and challenging field of Internet governance.

Emerging Issues

The now annual Emerging Issues session addressed two highly relevant and unique topics over the course of the session. The first half of the session examined the extent that Internet based services today offer new and radically different opportunities to help families, social groups, communities and broader structures in society organize and re-organize themselves when challenged by natural disaster or strife. The second half of the session then explored a range of questions and issues related to the free flow of information, freedom of expression and human rights and their respective balances with intellectual property rights.

“Super Storm Sandy”, which battered the Eastern seaboard of the United States only days prior to the IGF, set a tragic yet appropriate stage for addressing the emerging issue of using ICTs in natural disasters and other emergency situations. The recovery effort during the recent earthquake in Japan was used as a vivid example of how ICTs can be essential and life saving tools in these situations. Tools to help find people, online transportation and domestic resource data, public alerts and shelter information were just a few of the countless services that various technologies provided the people of Japan in the days, weeks and months after the earthquake hit. Technology helped the first responders respond in the initial phase of the recovery effort and helped the survivors survive in the second phase. In the rebuilding efforts technology help communities rebuild.

The 2004 tsunami in the South Pacific was also revisited during the session, where participants were reminded about the crucial role that civil society plays in disaster relief efforts. Traditional media such as radio was the essential tool used during recovery efforts there, as local civil society organizations on the ground were heavily relied upon to coordinate the first and second phases of the relief efforts. In both examples, it was stressed that public-private partnerships were essential to acting swiftly and effectively during these times of strife. For example, in Japan, You Tube was widely used to broadcast critical information while traditional broadcasting mediums were shut down. Television stations that were up and running ran advertisements to build community trust around the information that was being shared on the Internet.

Looking ahead, critical recommendations were made to best prepare for the next major disaster. While social media is becoming the first source for many in communicating vital information in the aftermath of disasters, and is certainly an essential and oftentimes life-saving service, we must be wary and attentive to the validity of information being shared on the mostly un-filtered public platform. Safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that mis-information that can cause both panic and danger is monitored closely. The major takeaway though was that proper disaster preparation, through education, early warning services, and standing public-private partnerships, all using various ICTs, need to be a top priority for all stakeholders to best mitigate the next natural disaster, wherever it may hit.

The second part of the session addressed a variety of emerging policy questions and concerns resulting from the rapid growth of the Internet. The discussion began by exploring some of the implications of the use of new technical and political instruments on the free flow of information and access to information while still respecting basic notions of human rights. It was stressed that we live in a ‘brave new world’ where traditional notions of copyright, consumer protection and government and other intermediary regulations of media are being transformed in a variety of ways as a result of the Internet.

While the session certainly built consensus around the notion of the necessity of maintaining universal freedom of expression and limited content regulation on the Internet, there were also some gray areas and debate within this budding policy discussion. What about unique cultural content that is vital to the preservation of National identity and history in many smaller countries? How about hate speech and religious attacks on social networks; shouldn’t someone be regulating this? And if so, who should this be? These were only two of many questions and concerns that were raised on this issue throughout the session. It became clear that there would be no single rule or policy choice to address these problems but rather a multi-faceted and flexible approach must be taken that involved all stakeholders.

Next, panelists engaged the audience in a debate onwhat some acceptable and proportionate measures might be that offer intellectual property protection, yet allow for and respect individual users’ freedom to express themselves, to access and share content and culture, and to innovate and create freely. Traditional media representatives reminded participants that while free and open source content and information was certainly valuable; so to was the dissemination of premium quality content newspapers, radio, television, movies and music. A balance needs to be struck which guarantees intellectual property, consumer protection and freedom of expression online.

Online privacy and safety was also discussed in depth throughout the session. Some argued that new regulations might not be necessary to provide such privacy and safety, as consumer protection laws are already in place in many parts of the world. These existing laws together with education and outreach to new consumers of online content, especially using mobile devices, was said to be crucial in assuring privacy and safety. It was agreed that certain new threats such as cyber-crime and identity theft needed special attention and innovative regulatory and legal policy solutions.

It was established that these emerging challenges would only increase as we move farther and farther into the digital age and that they will need to be addressed with wide ranging and diverse solutions.

Managing Critical Internet Resources

The session focused on three main questions and introduced a summary of an important related workshop on enhanced cooperation. The session namely addressed the following issues, among others: the challenges and opportunities of ICANN's new gTLD program, particularly the potential impact on developing countries; the latest situation of IPv6 deployment and issues around the development of secondary markets for address space; and the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), helping delegates understand its relevance to the IGF and explaining the WCIT process which cleared up many misunderstandings.

Introducing the new gTLD program, it was noted that it was possible to open up the top level, i.e. what we today see as .COM, .ORG, .AZ, .CN, etc., to an almost unlimited number of suffixes, but before that happened many complex policy and operational issues had be agreed. For example, deciding how to deal with applications to use geographic names as a TLD, what to do if there were competing applications for a name (in the ICANN process 13 different companies have applied to operate the .APP TLD), public policies to address intellectual property claims, trademarks, etc. The role of governments in developing and applying policy advice was also noted.

The audience was told this complex process resulted in 1930 applications, some for the same name (noted above). Only 6% were for IDN TLDs, that is names using scripts other than ASCII characters. Panelists also discussed the low number of applicants from developing regions; there were very few applicants from Africa and Latin America. ICANN's Government Advisory Committee (GAC) was on record as having expressed concern about this problem and that more should have been done to increase outreach and raise awareness. However, at the same time, when the TLD program began it was not a priority for most developing countries, where the concern was more about connectivity and access. Developing countries are now more engaged however, for example African stakeholders are developing a new African strategy for ICANN and this includes supporting the growth of the domain name industry in the continent.

All TLD applications were posted online with a public comment period on all and there are various processes for lodging objections. The applications and any comments on them are now being reviewed by a number of contracted expert review teams, checking, for example, that the applicant has the technical ability and financial capacity to operate part of the Internet's critical infrastructure. Other review teams look at geographic, intellectual property and other issues. Discussion then focused on the role of Governments and their ability to give "early warning" to an applicant of a potential objection. The early warning is intended to flag to an applicant that a government has concerns, and gives (if appropriate) the applicant the opportunity to modify their application to meet those concerns. Governments collectively, can file an objection on grounds of public interest as consensus "GAC Advice" to the ICANN Board.

Different types of possible grounds for public interest objections were discussed, for example, for a TLD "amazon", which is not just a river, but also a region spanning a number of countries. Governments should consider if this term can be appropriately used to represent an online commerce service. Panelists and members of the audience also commented on the appropriateness of using a generic term for private use, with one speaker suggesting it was unnatural to assert a worldwide monopoly on a generic term.

Government representatives were at pains to make clear that they did not have a veto on applications, but will use two nuanced and clearly defined processes to present potential objections, neither of which was final.

The second question addressed the issue of secondary markets for IPv4 addresses and the transition to IPv6. Introducing the situation, a panelist reminded the session that every public service on the Internet needed an IP address if end-to-end connectivity was to be maintained, and that the available pool of IPv4 addresses has already run dry, with the remaining reserve expected to be depleted in two years. Yet devices are being added to the Internet at ever increasing rates.

The theory had been to use a new address protocol, IPv6, however these addresses are not being used and the transition is not going well. Many devices now connect to the Internet using what are known as "carrier-grade NATs", which effectively provide a private IPv4 network using addresses that are not visible to the global Internet. The popularity of these services is generally making secondary markets for addresses less necessary.

The final topic was the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). WCIT is treaty-making conference organized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to modify the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). The process is not well understood, but had recently received a lot of publicity suggesting current Internet operational and governance models might be under threat. The session broadly agreed this was an exaggeration, but there was reason for concern.

The ITRs are a short treaty document of high-level principles that have flexibly allowed telecommunications regulations to evolve over the almost 25 years since they were introduce. The purpose of WCIT is to consider how to update the ITRs to make them relevant for today's ICT world. WCIT discussions are relevant to the IGF because the modified ITRs might expand the ITU's jurisdiction into issues of Internet policy. But unlike the IGF, the WCIT negotiations will not be multi-stakeholder, in the WCIT only governments can speak and will vote on their outcomes.

Proposals for revising the ITRs have been submitted to the ITU for more than a year, and some would have a direct impact on the operation of the Internet. For example, proposals to apply telecommunication-style legislation about routing of traffic to the Internet would be technically impossible, and would prohibit, among other things, local web-caching, proxies, and even the carrier-grade NATs, mentioned above. A number of speakers pointed out that applying telecom mind-set regulations are contrary to many of the fundamental operating mechanisms of the Internet. There was strong agreement that it would not be appropriate for governments in WCIT to give the ITU authority to regulate or oversee the Internet.

A proposal for WCIT by the European Telecommunications Network Operators (ETNO) was discussed at some length. ETNO recommended that telecommunication network operators providing the infrastructure on which the Internet is run should receive fair compensation for their investment. Their recommendations included suggesting a model of "sender pays" for traffic over the Internet, the right to negotiate commercial agreements with content providers and for agreements for end-to-end quality of service.

A former telecommunications regulator now leading a research institute in Sri Lanka noted that investment flows from good business models, and that good business models are supported by demand. Based on research his institute is conducting in places like Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, demand comes from attractive content. He noted that developing countries face challenges in producing local content, so the send pays model would likely isolate most developing countries from overseas content providers. The proposal risks creating a balkanized Internet where providers will say I am not serving an area too expensive for me.

The final comments on WCIT noted that there were two main concerns: the definition of terms, for example should "telecommunications" include Internet, or processing, if yes then it would mean the ITRs applied directly to the Internet and Internet governance; Second, the scope, deciding which agencies were affected by the ITRs, for example regulatory agencies or all providers of communication services.

The concept on "enhanced cooperation" has been debated in previous IGFs and other international forums. It was also mentioned by a number of speakers during the opening session as an issue the IGF should consider embracing more vigorously. The workshop coordinator noted that except in the IGF, people tend to talk in their own silos; either organizational silos of entities working on related ICT and Internet governance policy, or silos of stakeholder groups. He suggested that this pattern needs to stop, people and organizations need to share knowledge and experiences. The IGF is an important model for such sharing, but it only happens once each year. A more concerted effort is needed both inside and outside the IGF to improve how we approach and tackle the challenges of enhanced cooperation.

Internet Governance for Development (IG4D)

Development issues were noted to be one of the essential themes of the IGF – more so this year considering its theme was ‘Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development’. The IGF was praised to be one of the most relevant platforms for influencing ICT policy formulation, specifically in developing countries, due to the nature of new economic opportunities, and social, cultural and political changes that the Internet creates.

The session was divided into three clusters. The first cluster looked at the "Pending Expansion of the Top Level Domain Space". This section examined how various actors in the developing world (governments, industry groupings, the technical community, civil society) perceive the relative costs and benefits of expanding the domain name space to the end-user. It also assessed what kinds of support may be required to help communities, NGOs and businesses from the developing world in bridging the potential inclusion gap of TLD space.

As the Internet today is the most dynamic factor in global, social, cultural and political development, concerns with the impact of the Internet, as well as with the workings of the Internet were raised. This highlighted that further engagement with policy makers and relevant governance institutions in other policy domains should be further included into future IGFs.

The overall relationship between Internet governance and sustainable development was raised as an issue of concern. Delegates were reminded that the concept of social development was sometimes mis-understood to mean that this development emphasized environmental protection and viability. Sustainable in this context actually means that development progress should ensure that generations to come enjoy the same benefits and prosperity that current generations are receiving from development activities. Therefore, when using ICTs in development we must keep our future generations at the forefront of our minds.

The idea to create particular gTLD programs for developing economies for a second or third round was raised. This is due to the fact that some regions are lagging behind, and the opportunity must be seized at this early stage, as there are huge market and community opportunities to develop.

Another substantive idea that was raised regarding new gTLDs is accessing the Internet through mobile phone devices. Shorter domain names is a feature that needs to be taken into account, as internet access will be predominantly through mobile phone devices in some regions.

The second cluster was "Enabling Environment". Panellists explored various ways to attract investment in infrastructure and encourage innovation and growth of ICT services, including mobile technology and how these technologies can best be employed to address development challenges. Additionally, it looked at the challenges and opportunities for the participation of stakeholders in developing Internet governance policy, legal and regulatory approaches.

The panel asked the floor to consider how Internet governance can address challenges where the direct impact of the ICT sector and the Internet is substantial and threatening to sustainability. Waste from the ICT sector, including the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from the ICT sector, are having a negative impact on the environmental sustainability.

Considering this, the question of who bares responsibility of this sector’s negative impact was addressed. Would the private sector’s self-regulation be adequate? And if so, should environmental factors be incorporated in the physical engineering of the Internet, in network architecture, in the design of devices, data centers or applications? Delegates debated these questions at length.

The pending expansion of the Top Level Domain Space was discussed in detail including reviewing the 1930 applications that have been received by ICANN. Of note is the low number of generic Top Level Domain applications categorized as community-related, as there are 84 applications, representing only 4% of total applications. Discussion then shifted to factors contributing to the low uptake of new generic Top Level Domains for communities. Generally, it is believed that few measures had been taken to facilitate the participation and engagement of communities, particularly those from the developing world. Other contributing factors for low uptake from developing countries were discussed including the barriers posed by the type and level of expertise needed to complete the application, the financial requirement, and the short period of time for applications to be submitted.

The third and final cluster examined the "Infrastructure" theme in greater detail by discussing the key issues concerning Internet infrastructure from developing countries' experiences and how new technologies and the global Internet governance mechanisms address limitations, offer opportunities and enable development.

This session highlighted the significance of Internet governance for development, not as a fringe activity but as a core element of the development agenda. An important message to take to the next IGF was to bring more specific case studies and concrete actions to the forum.

Access and Diversity

The session addressed five main themes: infrastructure, the mobile Internet and innovation, human empowerment, the free flow of information, and multilingualism. These five themes were used to look at Internet access and diversity as a value proposition and the issues that needed to be addressed in order to transform the unconnected into empowered users, users into Internet creators and Internet creators into the innovators who would fuel the economic transformation and international development we desired.

The first question asked who should pay for the infrastructure needed to meet rapidly growing demand. Government representatives on the panel, supported by others and comments from the audience, highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships. Four years ago when the situation of broadband in East Africa was poor, the government of Kenya in particular supported and led initiatives to land fiber optic submarine cables and cheaper international bandwidth. This has since been the foundation of new national Internet infrastructure. Governments in the region also worked with the private sector to build a national broadband network between major cities and towns, extending to rural areas and across to land-locked neighboring countries. Where demand did not exist (or did not yet exist) to entice private sector partnership, the governments worked alone, for example Kenya fully funded a national research network providing broadband to universities, which is now being extended to high schools and secondary schools.

Another example that was raised was that of the Jamaican government acting as a catalyst for investment by producing favorable licensing and regulatory regimes that allowed private sector investment. However, a number of comments noted that to be sustainable investment must be demand driven. Investment should be encouraged across the infrastructure chain, inter alia, from international and local bandwidth, to Internet exchange points, as well as favorable tax regimes, easing of import restrictions, and national policies that brought together agencies to support a common goal.

An intervention from the floor emphasized that access needed to be addressed in a bottom-up approach to ensure all the diverse elements of a country and culture were considered. For example, India, with 18 official languages and many millions of people with very dramatically different skills in terms of literacy, are living in very different economic conditions.

UNESCO noted the results of a recently completed survey that found a positive correlation between volume of local content and access prices: the more local content you have, the quality of service will be better and the access price will be lower. The speaker noted this might seem paradoxical, but is what happens.

Open government data was presented as an effective stimulus for mobile application development and innovation in services. Innovation hubs where young engineers and entrepreneurs can meet have sprung up across the African continent and are new ecosystems supporting mobile development and start-up businesses. There was agreement that mobile Internet had opened up opportunities for micro-enterprises and micro-entrepreneurs. They come from the grassroots, but are increasingly supported by sophisticated infrastructure such as 4G networks and high quality handsets and other mobile devices such as tablets as well as open software development kits. Responding to a question from the floor, a panelist stated that with the quality of high-speed networks and new mobile devices, the mobile Internet was a satisfactory replacement for wired.

The issues of women's rights and empowerment stimulated interesting debate, asking how access to the Internet can help women realize the full range of their rights. The session heard that around two thirds of the world's population of illiterate adults are made up of women; literacy is clearly a big issue in terms of access to the Internet. A panelist noted programs were needed that provided technology to women not as passive users, but as active participators and creators.

One of three feeder workshops for the session reported on technology, economic and societal opportunities for women. Their discussions had focused on what was required to get women to have access; on education and skills building to empower women to get online; the challenges of cyber-crime and violence directed at women and how these can force women to stay offline, and, empowering women to overcome these challenges.

A second feeder workshop described how libraries and other community services can deliver public access to the Internet. Their discussions had explored how public access solutions could meet community needs and solutions that took advantage of existing infrastructure, expertise and partnerships with the private sector. A third workshop reported on consumer rights and consumer protection, moving from the issue of gaining access to ensuring the quality of that access and asking if access to the Internet should be considered a new human right.

Access in terms of accessibility for people with disabilities, including aging populations, was raised as a global challenge. It was highlighted that approximately 1 billion people were living with disabilities and this number is going to increase, particularly as population’s age. Reference was made to a study by the International Labor Organization, which showed that the disabled people are more likely to be unemployed than able-bodied people.

The English language dominated the Internet of the 1990s and early 2000s, but recent efforts were described that had given rise to a more multi-lingual global Internet. Most obvious has been the rise of Chinese Internet users, which has given Chinese language very strong prominence. The use of Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic and other non-ASCII scripts has also been supported by technical developments such as internationalized domain names; speakers noted IDNs as an important facilitator of language diversity on the Internet.

A panelist described his government's efforts to preserve local, indigenous and endangered languages. The Public broadcaster had long preserved content in different indigenous languages, but for many years had no platform to make them available. Digitalization and online services are able to make such content available. However, conservation of local languages needs indigenous people to come forward and help the government and other bodies. The drive to preserve endangered languages has to come from people themselves, not left just to government to respond in a top-down manner.

In closing the session, the chair presented research that a 10% increase in broadband penetration can lead to a 3.2 per cent increase in a county's GDP, along with a 2 per cent productivity increase. She noted broadband Internet can play important role in boosting the economy of a country as well as the well being of citizens.

Security, Openness and Privacy

The security, openness and privacy session examined and questioned a wide range of rapidly emerging controversial issues relevant to and impacting online and offline security, privacy, and notions of identity as they relate to concepts of human rights and freedom of expression. As more and more individual lives and societal groups are moving into the online world, traditional safe guards, legislation and various regulations to protect both individual rights as well as national security are being re-examined.

In the past year Internet users around the world have become more aware of new perceived ‘dangers’ of this online world. The concept of ‘big-data’ has become a major issue of concern as we learn more and more about how our personal information is being extracted and retained by companies when we are online going about our now daily lives. Users are also learning about how we are now often times being watched through satellite and hidden camera surveillance techniques.

Companies argue that users need to be responsible and wary of their behavior and safety online, and governments justify surveillance for national security reasons; however, this does not bring comfort or satisfaction to most. Panelists engaged one another and the audience in a debate on what rights users should have online in this regard, taking into consideration the vital and usually over-riding importance of national and global security as well as existing human rights treaties.

Policy issues regarding both domestic and trans-border cyber-crime were also discussed in depth during the session. Subject experts emphasized the increasing complexities of such attacks, noting also that the technology enabling this behavior is only going to become more sophisticated and harder to combat. Who should bear the responsibility for preventing these attacks? Arguments can be made that this responsibility should fall on government policy makers, national militaries, Internet intermediaries, or individual users themselves. Some consensus was built that it was not one actor but rather the multi-stakeholder community that should be addressing this dangerous and burgeoning threat.

Strong calls were made by both panelists and participants in the session about guaranteeing individual human rights and freedoms of expression in our collective societal transition to life on the Internet. These rights have been traditionally granted and sustained for the betterment of society at large, and this should not change when individuals go onto the Internet, whether it’s a rural villager on a mobile phone, a child interacting with new friends on a Facebook account or a priest communicating to followers on a blog.

It was argued that access to knowledge and the right to speak one’s mind freely is essential for pursuing human, social and economic development. It was said too that surely we need to watch for abuses of these rights, that we must not be harming one another and that the rule of law must always be kept in mind and assured, but we also must build a level of trust and mutual understanding about using the Internet so that we can use it freely and openly to best harness its potential.

Rousseau’s social contract was used as a metaphor during the session as a way that we could re-think public policy on these emerging and sensitive issues. To obtain certain individual rights, it was said; we must also perhaps hand over certain freedoms to others to guarantee such rights. In the online world this might mean that we need some safeguards or regulations in place to maintain our security and safety on the Internet. As a result of our rapidly globalizing society Rousseau’s contract which was meant for the individual and the sovereign state might now apply to the individual Internet user in the online world.

Examples of hate crimes happening online and the appropriate way to deal with such crimes was examined as well. More and more instances of ‘cyber-bullying’ are arising on social media sites as young people see themselves often as having autonomous identities in cyber-space. Should they have the right to be invisible in this space? Who should be held responsible when a child uses a social media platform to cause emotional harm to a classmate; the social media platform, the parent’s of the child, or nobody at all? This debate had no easy answer aside from that education was absolutely essential. Internet users of all ages but be trained on the risks of going online, about the risks and about basic human responsibilities and that the same un-written rules of how we should treat one another should apply online that do offline.

The inclusion of developing countries in the debate was stressed throughout the session. Oftentimes in this new policy domain laws or regulations established in more developed countries or regions can affect other countries. Developing countries need appropriate autonomy to be able to formulate policies that are unique to their social and economic development paths and national or regional cultures. Developing countries now also have the most to gain in their policy formulations as they are sometimes starting from scratch, meaning that assuring access and openness to the Internet, to best harness the potential for entrepreneurship and to give their people empowering rights and freedoms that the Internet can provide.

A conclusion that did emerge was that the inclusion of youth, in formulating policies on all issues, was absolutely essential. Young people represent the future and are already the most tech savvy generation in most countries. This trend will only continue to increase and hearing their voices and following their lead is certainly the optimal path for us all, using the multi-stakeholder model, to ensure our respective security and privacy while also maintaining and growing an open Internet available to all.2

ANNEX 1

List of Speakers

Internet Governance ForumBaku, Azerbaijan, 6 – 9 November 2012

1. Opening Ceremony

Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under Secretary General, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)

Mr. Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce, United States of America

Ms. Fiona Alexander, Associate Administrator (Head of Office) for the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Office of International Affairs, Government of the United States of America

Ambassador Benedicto Fonseca, Brazil

Ms. Alice Munyua, Chair of the Kenya Internet Governance Steering Committee, Ministry of Information and Communications, Government of Kenya

1 To produce a summary for delegates prior to their departure this draft covers the Forum through the end of the 3rd day (6-8 Nov.) and thus does not include the proceedings of 9 November. A further complete draft will be completed in the coming days and will be posted on the IGF website.

2 The final version of the chair’s summary will include the Taking Stock main session as well as the Closing ceremony which take place on the final day of the meeting.